Yesterday all the fathers and moms who have children in Primary school were listening with some concern to a story that told us the following: 'In mathematics, Spain is below average and only ahead of Romania, Poland and Turkey, the countries that leading the best scores are Singapore, South Korea and China (Hong Kong). '
But not only educational deficits in mathematics are noted, because In Science, students in our country obtain lower than average OECD scores, being the nations with greater performance in the matter Finland, Russian Federation and the Anglo-Saxon countries. The results were published yesterday and They tell us about the evaluations of primary school children. The report we are talking about is similar to that of PISA (these are the PIRLS tests applied during 2011), and it was made by the IEA international evaluation institution to 8580 students from 312 centers. The data gives us to reflect, because very probably the most serious problems of education in our country are originating from early ages.
What factors determine performance? On the one hand we find the emphasis on academic success (getting good grades) and interest in classes. I think the first one can condition the second, although I am clear that (as a mother pointed out recently during one of the talks I give) parents must enforce the effort to achieve good results, without detracting from other educational aspects that help us to achieve an integral formation of our children.
Spanish students not only have lower results than the other countries in mathematics and science, but they have obtained only 513 points in reading (compared to the 538 OECD average, and 534 in the European Union). In that competition, we are only ahead of Norway, Belgium, Romania and Malta.
Influence of the social level on performance
Apparently the children of parents with university studies get higher scores than those whose parents only have university studies, however, the difference is smaller than when we take as a reference the average of the OECD countries.
The document presented by the international organization IEA affirms that among concerted / private and public centers they are remarkable, although this is not because education is better, but because their students come from more favored socio-economic environments. In this regard, I am convinced that this statement is very partial since there are also students in public schools in privileged environments, who learn to live with those who lack resources.
And, of course, I don't agree with those experts who point to the need to support children who have an interest in studies (wherever they come from). So that there are not very common situations in Secondary, through which the aid to groups with difficulties is increased, disregarding the students who for the reason they offer more brilliant results.
Is there a place for hope?
In Spain all children have the same opportunities to study (not to 'render' academically, I would add) regardless of their social class. Here excellent students do not concentrate in some centers, or those who have difficulties in others, although educational reform can change this.
From all this network of figures I think we can draw as a conclusion, that it is necessary that families transfer motivation to children as an aspect to work in relation to studies. And that we give them the necessary support in monitoring their evolution (attending tutorials) or providing them with the necessary means to study or perform tasks satisfactorily at home.
It is clear that (and in parallel) we must demand that The educational methodologies are adapted to the current times, only in this way the contents that students learn will have application in real life, in addition to that most likely thus children will be more motivated.
Maybe the future is even more convulsive than the presentFor children, many skills that are not always taught in schools will be useful. But good school performance is also necessary in order to achieve social stability.
I have updated the information in the first paragraph because I involuntarily mentioned Hong Kong as a Country, when it is a region of China
